4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: WESTCHESTER HIGH STUDENTS WALK OUT - Apparently to protest conversion of school to magnet [Updated]

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: WESTCHESTER HIGH STUDENTS WALK OUT - Apparently to protest conversion of school to magnet [Updated]

WESTCHESTER HIGH STUDENTS WALK OUT - Apparently to protest conversion of school to magnet [Updated]

BY HOWARD BLUME, LA TIMES/LA NOW | HTTP://LAT.MS/JF2OQY

Source: California Department of Education / Sandra Poindexter, Ben Welsh Los Angeles Times

Westchester Senior High 7400 West Manchester Ave., Los Angeles, 90045 Public school in the Los Angeles Unified district. Grades 9-12 1,812 students 87 faculty members

June 1, 2011 | 1:04 pm - At least 400 students walked out of class at Westchester High School on Wednesday morning. Los Angeles school district officials said the walkout began at 10:30 a.m. and was initiated by current magnet-school students at Westchester. The protest was still continuing nearly two hours later.

District officials said students were protesting the planned conversion of the neighborhood school to be entirely a magnet program. Currently, just a portion of the school is a magnet.

Some faculty members and students have been concerned that neighborhood students could be crowded out of the school if enrollment were based on a magnet-school